Although visualization remains a primary mode of interaction in simulations, touch is the most common way people use to interact with the physical objects. A greater sense of immersion in a learning environment can be reached when the user is able to feel and manipulate objects as compared to only seeing or listening. Despite the affordances of haptic technologies, which could serve as scaffolds for deep conceptual learning, their true potential in education has not been fully harnessed and little research has been done to investigate its effectiveness for learning difficult concepts. This study explores the potential of haptic technologies in supporting conceptual understanding of difficult concepts in science, specifically concepts related to electricity and magnetism. A pretest-posttest study identified if students improved their conceptual understanding of electricity and magnetism concepts. Specifically, this study identified (a) how students, with different physics background, conceptually interpreted the tactile learning experience in the context of the visualization, and (b) students' perceptions on the use of haptic technologies for their learning, as well as their perceived usefulness and ease of use. Our results suggest that overall students significantly improved their conceptual understanding about electric fields for distributed charges after being exposed to a visuohaptic simulation guided activity. Regarding students' prior coursework, students with high school-only physics background outperformed students who have been previously exposed to college-level physics courses 8% higher in the posttest average score. Similarly, students overall agreed that they enjoyed using the haptic device for learning and found the technology as easy to interact with. Implications for teaching and learning are provided as well as venues for future work.
BACKGROUND:
Underweight is still prevalent in developing countries like India. Prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) is used as the standard against which the measurements are made in pregnancy.
AIM:
To study the association between early pregnancy BMI and feto-maternal outcome among nulliparous women
METHODOLOGY:
This is a prospective observational study, with a sample size of 294. The antenatal patients were categorized into four categories of BMI according to the WHO classification, and pregnancy outcomes were compared. Data were analyzed using SPSS Software Version 17.0. Statistical tools used were percentages and mean, and categorical variables were analyzed by Chi-square statistics.
RESULTS:
48.94% of the patients enrolled in the study had normal early pregnancy BMI, and 44.22% and 6.8% were underweight and overweight, respectively. Obese women who gained more weight were at a higher risk of preterm delivery, cesarean section, and more time required for resumption of normal routine. Underweight women were at higher risk of postterm delivery, low birth weight, and increased hospital stay.
CONCLUSION:
Adverse maternal and fetal outcomes are seen more commonly with the extremes of BMI.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.